THE 



INAUGURATION 



OF 



PRESIDENT PATTON 



Princeton, N. J., 20th June, ii 



^ J\j^^jsji^t^ 



U 



THE 



INAUGURATION 



OF THE 



REV. FRANCIS LANDEY PATTON, D.D., LL.D. 



AS 



PRESIDENT OF PRINCETON COLLEGE. 



Princeton, N. J., June 20th, i 









v^:^^ 



JRAY BROS., PRINTERS. 1f,9 & 170 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 



I. 

Order of Ceremonies. 



II. 



Address on behalf of the College, 

By Rev. JAMES O. MURRAY, D.D., LLD., 

Dean of the Collesre. 



III. 

Address on behalf of the Alumni, 

By the' Rev. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D., '73. 
President of the Princeton Club of New York. 



IV. 

Inaugural Address, 

By PRESIDENT PATTON, 



SERVICES AT THE INAUGURATION 

OF THE 

REV. FRANCIS LANDEY PATTON, D.D., LL.D., 

AS PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, 
Wednesday, June 20, 1888. 



PRESIDING OFFICER 

His Excellency ROBERT S. GREEN, LL.D., 

Governor of New Jersey. 



The procession formed in the cainp2is in front of NassatL Hall 

at two d clock p. m. 

GRAND MARSHAL, SUSSEX D. DAVIS, Esq., '59. 



Order of Procession. • 

1. The Governor of the State and the President of the College. 

2. The President-Elect and the Chancellor of the State. 

3. The Officiating Clergymen and Orators of the day. 

4. The Trustees of the College. 

5. The Faculty of the College. 

6. The Trustees, Directors and Faculty, of the Princeton Theological Seminary 

7. Invited Guests. 

8. The Alumni. 

9. The Fellows and University Students. 

10. Alumni of other Colleges. 

11. Undergraduates. 

12. Citizens. 

The processio7i moved as soon as formed to the First Chtcrch. 



Order of Exercises. 



I. MUSIC. Organ Prelude. 

Chorale — Veni Creator Spiritus. 

ORGAN, ORCHESTRA, CHOIR. 

II. OPENING PRAYER, 

The Rev. THEODORE L. CUYLER, D D., LL.D. 

III. ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE COLLEGE, 

Professor JAMES O. MURRAY, D.D., LL.D. 
Dean of the College. 

IV. ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI, 

The Rev. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D., 

President of the Princeton Club of New York. 

V. MUSIC, . EiN Feste Burg, Martin Luther. 

ORCHESTRA, CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. 

VI. ADMINISTRATION OF THE OATH OF OFFICE TO THE PRESIDENT- 
ELECT, 

Hon. ALEXANDER T. McGILL, Jr., 

Chancellor of the State of New Jersey. 

Vn. DELIVERY OF THE CHARTER AND KEYS OF THE COLLEGE TO THE 

PRESIDENT-ELECT, 

The Rev. JAMES McCOSH, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D. 
President of the College. 

VIH. INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 

The Rev. FRANCIS LANDEY PATTON, D.D.. LL.D. 
President-Elect. 

IX. MUSIC, The Old Hundredth Psalm. 

ORCHESTRA, CHOIR AND CONGREGATION. 

X. CONCLUDING PRAYER. 

Professor WILLIAM HENRY GREEN, D.D., LL.D. 

XI. BENEDICTION, 

Vice-chancellor TELFAIR HODGSON, D.D., LL.D. 

XII MUSIC, POSTLUDE. 

ORCHESTRA AND ORGAN. 



Committee. 

JAMES W. ALEXANDER, A.M., Chairman. 

SAMUEL H. PENNINGTON, M.D., LL.D., JOHN A. STEWART, A.M., 

WILLIAM HENRY GREEN, D.D., LL.D., CHARLES E. GREEN, AM., 

WILLIAM M. PAXTON, D.D., LL.D., JAMES O. MURRAY, D.D., LL.D., 

E. R. CRAVEN, D.D., CHARLES W. SHIELDS, D.D., LL.D. 

ANDREW F. WEST, Ph.D. 
M. TAYLOR PYNE, LL.B., Secretary. 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE COLLEGE. 



'INHERE is but one other Commencement In the history of the 
"*■ college, which may claim an interest as engrossing as that which 
centres in the Commencement of 1888. It is the Com.mencement 
of 1748, first in the lengthening series, held at Newark, Nov. 9th 
of that year. On the morning of that day, the Trustees, presided 
over by his Excellency Jonathan Belcher, Governor and Com- 
mander in chief of the Province of New Jersey, had unanimously 
chosen to the Presidency of the College, the Rev. Aaron Burr. 
The public exercises then began with a solemn prayer of the 
President elect to God in the English tongue (as the chronicle 
of the day reports) for a blessing upon the public transactions of 
the day, upon his majesty King George the Second and Royal 
family, upon the British Nation and Dominions, * * * ^md 
particularly upon the infant College of New Jersey. Then the 
assembly were called on to stand up and hearken to his Majesty's 
Royal Charter granted to the Trustees of the College. 

The exercises of the afternoon were opened by President 
Burr, who gave an eloquent oration in the Latin tongue, delivered 
memoriter. The address, judging from the report made of it to 
the Pennsylvania Journal, is marked by the breadth of its views 
regarding the province of college education. It recognized the 
fraternity of American Colleges, by a graceful tribute to Harvard 
and Yale ''which have now flourished for many years, and have 
sent forth many hundreds of learned men * * * that in dif- 
ferent periods have proved the honor and ornament of their 
Country, and of which the one or the other had been the Alma 
Mater of most of the Literati then present." The address closed 
by expressing the conviction that 'Teaming * * * had now 
begun to dawn upon the Province of New Jersey," and by 
eulogizing the ample provisions and liberal terms of the Royal 



8 • 

Charter. Six young scholars were then admitted to the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts, and among them stood Richard Stockton, a 
future signer of the Declaration of Independence. The Trustees 
completed the business of the day by the adoption of a Corpora- 
tion Seal. Its mystic symbolism is thus interpreted. In the 
upper part of the circle, a Bible spread open, with Latin characters 
inscribed on the left side signifying the Old Testament, and on 
the right side, the New with this motto over it, ''Vitae lumen 
mortuis reddit." Underneath on one side a table with books 
standing thereon to signify the proper business of the student, 
on the other a diploma with the college seal appended, over it 
being written ''meriti praemium," to signify that the degrees to 
be conferred are only to those that deserve them. 

The principles to govern the future growth of the College 
were thus fully set forth, as we consider the charter, the first 
inaugural address, and the college seal, viz: that education here 
was to be something altogether broader than mere training of 
godly men for the ministry, and on the other hand that education 
here was to be in its prof oundest sense Christian. By such ties then, 
are the Commencements of 1748 and 1888, linked together. The 
infant College of New Jersey in 1748, having escaped all the ills 
incident to college childhood — especially its most dangerous foe, 
want of nourishment — aspires in 1888 to be the University 
of Princeton. The life of institutions, as history fully attests, is 
determined largely, if not absolutely fixed, by the spirit of their 
founders. Be that liberal and progressive, the type is there, as 
the oak in the acorn. But while this is unquestionably true, we 
cannot forget that the men w^ho preside over their expansion 
must be men comprehending fully and in hearty sympathy with, 
the principles governing their foundation. Such in fact have 
been the men who in this country have been chosen to this high 
office. The Presidents of our American Colleges have from the 
beginning been men of noble mark, the very elect in their callings, 
leaders in the 'church, not seldom leaders in both Church and 
State. No other class of men have done more than they to build 
up our American civilization which, though according to Mr. 



9 

Matthew Arnold, It may not be interesting, seems somehow to 
have a profound significance for the student of history. Yes, 
American College Presidents have moulded the life of the State, 
quite as much as that of the Church. If they have not always 
been profound scholars, they have been men, whose chai^acters 
educated those under them, for after all it is the force of character 
in the teacher back of his learning, which is the most powerful 
factor in his work. The mention of such names as may be found 
among the presidents of Harvard; of President Dwight of Yale 
(whose lineal descendant and namesake, holding the same posi- 
tion, graces by his presence our festivities to-day); of Presidents 
Wayland and Hopkins, is both illustration and proof of this 
statement. And as I run rapidly over the list of our own College 
Presidents, it will be seen that the Presidency of the College of 
New Jersey has been ever held by men of whom any institution 
might be proud, men who through varying fortune have led the 
college from its infancy up to the position it holds to-day, at 
home and abroad. 

President Dickinson was the first; in of^ce less than a year, 
dying untimely in the ripeness of his learning, of great practical 
wisdom, with every gift to guide successfully the fortunes of the 
young institution. Succeeded by President Burr, who brought 
to his official work, high powers of organizing and administration, 
and under whose presidency, the college at once strode to influence, 
eulogized at his death, by Benjamin Franklin as ''a great scholar 
and a very great man." Then came that greatest of names 
among American theologians, Jonathan Edwards, who by his 
untimely death, just after induction to of^ce, has left here only 
the legacy of his illustrious name. After him Samuel Davies, 
that foremost of American preachers, whose monument is seen 
to-day on our campus, Nassau Hall, miscalled North College, 
the means for building which he, before his appointment to the 
Presidency, obtained from friends In England and Scotland: In 
office only two short years, but wielding a noble and powerful In- 
fluence in behalf of the College abroad and at home, building his 
own character Into it even in that short time. Next Samuel Finley, 



lO 

the man of various learning, an eminent divine, and well described 
in his epitaph as, 

Artibus, literisque excultus, 
Prae ceteris prsecipue enituit, 
Rerum divinarum scientia. 

And so in succession yi?/^;^ Witherspoon, whose services as an 
American patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence 
only bring into more conspicuity, his distinguished administration 
of the college presidency, and whose Scotch birth proves that men 
may be born British subjects and yet form American citizens in 
every fibre of their being. Samuel Stanhope Smith, the man of 
elegant culture, infusing into the college life its refining power, and 
of whom Washington wrote to his namesake George Washington 
Custis, sometime a student here, ''No college has turned out 
better scholars, or more estimable characters than Nassau, nor is 
there any whose president is thought more expert to direct a 
proper system of education than Dr. Smith." Ashdel Green, that 
born leader in the American Presbyterian Church, the intimate 
friend of the saintly Bishop White, and whose firm hand the 
college felt as he took the helm, and who brought to his great 
work a reputation for theological ability, only second to that for 
practical energy. James Carnahan, sagacious, laborious in execu- 
tive work, less of the scholar than most of his predecessors, but 
wise enough to bring into the Faculty such men as Joseph Henry, 
Stephen Alexander, Albert Dod, John Torrey, Joseph Addison, 
and James W. Alexander par nobile fratrum. John Maclean, 
whose name as I speak it calls up that venerated form so lately 
vanished from his native town, whose life is one long record of 
devotion to the college, whose courage and faith stood true in 
the dark hours of its history, the courtly, benign, beloved, thrice- 
beloved of teachers and of Presidents. Lastly, and how nobly 
crowning the succession, yi:?;;?^^^' McCosh, who would have been 
famous in philosophy, had he never been President, but whose 
twenty years in Princeton constitute the most distinguished era 
in its history. 



II 

And to-day we add another, the twelfth of these apostles of 
learning and reliction, President Patton. 

In behalf, therefore, of the College; of the Trustees who have 
chosen you to this high office; of the Faculty heartily approving, 
sincerely rejoicing in their choice; of the students who admire no 
less than they prize the many qualities which determined your 
selection for the post, I bid you, President Patton, our most 
sincere and enthusiastic welcome. We pledge you our most 
generous co-operation. We have the proud confidence that you 
will rise to meet the greater responsibilities of a greater future 
for Princeton, be it college or university, with triumphant success. 
And when the Commencement of 1897 dawns on us, as the 
colleofe shall then have rounded out its centurv and a half of 
historic achievement, we are well assured that your administra- 
tion will have abundantly proved itself the worthiest of successors 
to the noble lineage of our college presidencies. 



ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE ALUMNI. 



'T^HE task which has been assigned to me to-day is illuminated 
■*■ in my mind by a large and brilliant sense of incompetency 
to perform it. Old Princeton has more than three thousand 
living sons, and at least as many daughters-in-law, actual and 
prospective. What man could hope to utter with sufficient 
brevity to keep alive the soul of wit, the sentiments with which 
they regard the accession of a new President to this venerable, 
renowned, and beneficent institution? 

But one thing at least shall not fail in this address. Others 
could speak more eloquently; none shall speak more warmly and 
sincerely. Bound by personal gratitude to the grand old man 
who in our day found Princeton brick and leaves it brownstone, 
bound by personal friendship to the strong new man whose keen 
intellect and genial spirit won my boyish admiration in my father's 
house, I can speak from the heart. In saying to him whose work 
is crowned Benedictus, and to him whose work is inaugurated, 
Benedicatur, And whatever power my voice may lack shall be 
supplied by many voices saying heartily Amen. 

The past is completed: it needs no eulogy. The future 
appears: It needs only a greeting. To you. Sir, in the spirit of 
hope, all the Alumni of the institution of which you are now the 
head, offer a sincere and cordial welcome. Welcome! 'TIs a 
good old word, and we use it for two reasons. We believe that 
you have come well, — by fair and honorable means, — to this high 
place. And we believe that It is well that you have come to a 
position which you promise to fill and to adorn. 

Let us rehearse, with due regard to the modesty of President 
Patton, a few of the reasons for the faith that is in us. Of intel- 
lectual qualifications let those speak who have felt the keenness 
of his lance in philosophic tournament. His adversaries shall 



13 

praise him in the gates. But we who are his friends, rejoice, first 
of all, in the conviction, drawn from his own words, that he is an 
American in spirit, as he will soon be in name. We think little 
of the accident that he was born out of his native country. It 
was due to circumstances over which he had no control. It has 
little bearing upon his nationality. In fact, Sir, you are like the 
Irishman at Cork who was asked whether he was a native of that 
county. "For the most part I am," said he. ''How is that?" 
said the judge. " Faix, yer Honor," said Pat, ''whin I came here 
from Limerick me weight was siven stone, and that part o' me is 
Limerick. But now Lm siventeen stone, and tin stone of it is 
Cork!" The best part of you is American; and we believe that you 
will not only keep this college true in its loyal service to our great 
Republic, but that you will also set an example to its students 
in the practical discharge of all the duties of good American 
citizenship. 

The Alumni rejoice also in the fact that the new President 
is a believer in the growth and development of Princeton. We 
are conservatives; but there comes a time when conservatism is 
only possible by means of progress. You can only keep what you 
have got by getting more. Such a time has arrived here. Forty 
professors are too many for a training-school, and too few for a 
university. We must either go forward or go backward. The 
eyes of the new President, like those of his predecessor, are in 
the front of his head. We shall be glad with him, when the last 
swaddling-band of an outgrown name drops from the infant, and 
the "College of New Jersey" stands up straight in the centre of 
the middle states as the University at Princeton. 

This is not possible upon a sectarian basis. But, at least for 
us, It is only possible upon a distinctly Christian basis. It were 
better that this institution should close its doors to-morrow than 
cease to stand inflexibly for Christ and His truth.^ 

Several things are needed before the advancement of Prince- 
ton can be accomplished, — larger endowments, more instructors, 
more fellowships, more students. But there is one thing which 
we hope will not be forgotten: and that is a stronger allegiance 



14 

and a closer corporate spirit among the whole body of the Alumni. 
It is doubtful whether this can be developed merely through the 
digestive and financial organs, — that is to say by eating annual 
dinners and passing the contribution box. At Oxford and Cam- 
bridge the graduates are part of the governing body. Harvard, 
Yale, Cornell, Amherst, Williams, Brown and other colleges have 
called their sons into active partnership in the firm. This seems 
essential to the Anglo-Saxon idea of a University. How it is to 
be accomplished for Princeton it does not become us to suggest. 
We believe that President Patton desires it; and we say to him in 
familiar language, "Please now. Sir, bring it out in your own way." 
There is one other point on which the utterances of the new 
President have given great satisfaction to the Alumni. He is in 
favor of Athletics. We do not expect him to make touch-downs 
or base-hits, or to enter the arena among the gladiators to 

" pat their brawny arms 
"And stake his sesterces upon their gore." 

On the contrary we hope that he will diligently suppress those 
gladiatorial features which now dishonor intercollegiate athletics. 
But we look to the head of this college to encourage among all 
the students those active games in which gentlemen contend with 
each other, not for gate-money, prizes, or championships, but for 
mutual pleasure and the development of manly courage, patience, 
strength and self-control. 

None could understand better than yourself, Sir, the ardu- 
ous responsibilities and difficulties of your position. How they 
are to be met, it is your task to discover and devise. Our chief 
desire is that you shall have a free course and full support. When 
the vessel is to pass between the Scylla of radicalism and the 
Charybdis of reaction, it needs a Ulysses, not as a figure-head at 
the bow, but as a helmsman at the stern. The rudder is in your 
charge. 

Alumni, don't talk to the man at the wheel! Let him steer. 
But say ''God speed the ship"; and bear a hand; and give a cheer 
for Patton the new Pilot of Princeton. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



'\1/'E listened this morning to the story of ''Twenty Years of 
^^ Princeton," as told by the distinguished President whose 
administration has just come to a close. Remarkable as that 
administration would under any circumstances have been, it has 
been rendered more remarkable by the unique combination of 
events which coupled the accession of Dr. McCosh to the Presi- 
dency of the College, with an outflow of beneficence which has 
made possible the realization of the comprehensive scheme which 
he projected in his own inaugural address. During these years 
Dr. McCosh has been known not only as the wise and energetic 
administrator of the affairs of Princeton, but as an active force in 
the educational system of the land. Speaking now only of his 
services to this institution, it is simple truth to say that he has 
enlarged its curriculum, elevated its standard of instruction, 
increased its material resources, and doubled the number of its 
students. He has given Princeton a proud position as the home 
of Philosophy, and at the same time has enriched our literature 
with contributions to mental science which have spread far and 
wide the fame of this seat of learning, and vindicated for it afresh 
the place it has always held as a defender of the faith. He has 
good reason for satisfaction as he reviews the work of these 
twenty years; and we shall all concede that he has earned the rest 
from official responsibility which the transfer of office just effected 
will secure him. We congratulate ourselves upon the fact that 
he is still with us, and that, as his inclination may lead him or 
his strength shall allow, he will still take an active part in the 
instructions of that department of which he has so long been the 
distinguished head. We are in no danger of forgetting him. We 
shall never cease to reverence him; and I at least shall claim from 
time to time the privilege of his advice and the benefit of his 



i6 

experience. I express the feelings of all who are here to-day, 
and of thousands all over the land, in hoping that he may have a 
serene old age, and that he may live to see the carrying out in 
other hands of plans which he himself had formed, and the 
completion under the direction of another builder of that Univer- 
sity-structure that has these years past had ideal existence in his 
own mind. 

It has, I confess, the appearance of hardihood for me to 
consent, conscious as I am of my own inadequacy for the task, to 
be Dr. McCosh's successor; and, as some of you know, I hesitated 
for some time before I felt ready to cross the threshold of the 
door which was held open to me in my election with such 
generous and inviting welcome. For I knew my own limitations, 
and I could not but know that they would be accentuated by 
being placed in direct antithesis to the shining qualities of my 
predecessor. I could not hope that my coming into the Presi- 
dency would mark a new era of munificence, though it is true 
that history sometimes repeats itself; and yet I knew that, whether 
this were so or not, the friends of the College would look for a 
period of development and growth. If, however, this expectation 
of growth was enough to make me hesitate to accept the invita- 
tion to be the head of this College, a desire for arrested growth 
or a willingness to remain in a condition of contented stagnation 
would have made me prompt to decline it. It would be com- 
paratively easy, I suppose, to administer the affairs of this 
institution if we were willing to occupy a somewhat humble place 
in the sisterhood of American Universities. With our buildines, 
our endowments, and our somewhat assured position no very 
great effort would be needed to keep a certain hold upon the 
community. But I do not enter upon this work because I am 
looking for an easy place. I believe that Princeton is only at 
the beginning of her career, and that her future will as far tran- 
scend her present as her present transcends her past. It is at all 
events under the inspiration of this hope that I enter upon my 
work to-day. I thank the Trustees for the cordial unanimity with 
which they have expressed their desire to have me here; I thank 



17 

my colleagues in the Faculty for the heartiness with which they 
welcome one of their own number to this honorable position; I 
need and I am sure that I shall seek the co-operation of both the 
Trustees and the Faculty in the discharge of my duties; and 
while it is quite possible that I may not meet their expectations 
of efficiency, I think that they will have no occasion to complain 
of my lack of devotion to Princeton College. From this moment 
onward I shall strive with heart and mind to promote the interests 
of this institution; and may God give me strength to do for Him 
the work that my hands find to do. 

It would be natural for me to be interested in the crrowth of 
the College were it only through the zeal which the existence of 
competing interests is so apt to enkindle. But I think we should 
appeal to far higher motives than this in our desire to promote 
the orrowth of this institution. Indeed, I beg^in to fear that we 
may fall into a state of mind toward our sister colleges which 
may prevent us from doing full justice to the good work which 
the}^ are doing and may lead us to forget the common work in 
which we are engaged. To a certain extent we cannot help being 
affected by the habits of the business world; but I am nevertheless 
profoundly of the opinion expressed by Professor Laurie that 
''pure devotion to science and philosophy is utterly incompatible 
with the mental disturbance and degradation involved in academic 
shopkeeping." It is because our educational institutions are 
making permanent contributions to our American civilization that 
they are worthy of the best efforts of those who are engaged in 
their management; and it is because we think that Princeton has 
an important and a special contribution to make to that civilization 
that we can heartily wish for her advancement. Local pride, the 
interest we all feel in our own, and the desire to hold our own in 
the race for academic pre-eminence may very properly act as 
subordinate motives; but they are not enough to give strength to 
sustained endeavor. We must show, if we would make good our 
claim to the growing confidence of the public, that we are doing 
a special work for the world. 

The relation of the University to the problem of the world's 



improvement is itself a large question, and one that might well 
claim consideration if time allowed. That totality of effects in the 
progress of human life which we call civilization may be viewed 
both as cause and effect in respect to the higher education. There 
is a civilization before there is an organized effort to advance it: 
man improves himself before he begins to to think that he ought 
to improve himself. Blindly^ and as if by instinct, toward ideals 
that are not consciously placed before him, and through a force 
that can be likened only to inspiration, he moves on and up. He 
thinks and reasons, interrogates himself and interprets the world 
long before he raises questions respecting a /r^b;^/' knowledge, and 
the intelligibility of the universe, or realizes that the answers to 
these questions determine the possibility of science. Grammar 
exists before grammarians; logic before logicians construct mood 
and figure; and civilization takes a long step before it becomes con- 
scious of itself, and begins to plan for its own advancement. 
When however it reaches this latter stage it invents appliances to 
promote its own growth. It organizes with more care the insti- 
tutions of society, and helps Nature to give birth to higher forms 
of life and thought by establishing the School and the University. 
Hence it is that the University serves at first to garner and to 
crystallize results that have been already attained. We can en- 
large upon the trivium and qtiadrivium of mediaeval learning only 
as in the slow processes of evolution new sciences are born and 
new departments accepted as solid additions to knowledge. The 
University itself is sometimes the birth-place of these new sciences, 
but not always. We can make no contract with nature to secure 
a monopoly of genius to the guilds of learning. Franklin and 
Faraday were not academic men. Leibnitz, Des Cartes and 
Locke did not write in the service of universities. Mill and 
Spencer have spoken to a wider public than college classes. 
Equip your university as you may, the extra-mural teacher will 
always have a place among the factors in our intellectual growth. 
It may be said in fact that the university is not the mother but 
the foster-mother of culture. If however it conserves it also 
promotes civilization. A college is not simply a place for pedants 



19 

and grammarians; it is a place where the ideas that rule the 
world find expression. No one knew this better than Hobbes 
who found in the teachino^ of the universities the stroneest barriers 
against the success of his own philosophy, and nowhere than in his 
Leviathan do we accordingly find fuller appreciation of the influ- 
ence of the university upon the thought and action of a people. 
It is on account of this influence that our educational institutions 
deserve the consideration of those who value the world's welfare. 
For if our real wealth consists not in our corn and wheat, not in 
our coal-mines and railroads, not In our expensive houses and 
luxurious modes of locomotion, not In our immunity from toil, 
and the possession of abundant means of gratifying desire, — 
but in refined manners, high morals, devout life, cultivated 
powers, and wide knowledge of men and things: then, behind the 
agents who make and who execute the laws, behind the people 
who vote and the machinery by which the popular will Is expressed, 
and back of the avenues of trade along which material wealth 
rolls up to our doors, — we may well place as having first import- 
ance the Institutions that represent the best type of moral and 
intellectual culture; the Institutions that by their very genius 
and constitution stand for and Illustrate the best elements of 
living. The university is intended to be the home of culture, 
an intellectual retreat, a place where learning keeps state, and 
where men are interested, as Arnold says, "in things of mind." 
It Is a matter of no small moment to us as a nation to have 
here and there a place that in a measure at least can give tone 
to thought, a place where conscience Is quickened and taste 
refined, a place where men not only admire but learn also, as 
Ste. Beuve says, ''why it Is right to admire;" a place remote 
at least in sympathy from the exciting influences of trade, where 
the bull-fights and bear-fights of commercial speculation are un- 
known, and where the even tenor of academic life Is broken only 
when some unlucky investor wakes to find that his railroad has 
passed Its dividend or defaulted on its bonds. It Is easy of course 
for the university to fall short of doing its full duty. Learned 
leisure may become learned Indolence, but the university is meant 



20 

to be a place of endowed research. It is a hive as well as a home. 
We have not yet reached the full stage of productive activity that 
is desirable in this land because our professors as a rule are over- 
worked in the class-room. We have not fully learned the difference 
between a professor and a paedagogue, and that while the one may 
hear lessons, the other should inspire with the thirst for knowl- 
edge, and speak with authority. But we are coming to this 
position. We are finding that the professor who has ceased to 
learn is unfit to teach, and that the man who sees nothing before 
him to kindle his own enthusiasm will chill the little enthusiasm 
the student may carry into his lecture-room. There is no 
necessary antagonism between a man's work as a teacher and his 
work as an investigator. It is the man who is making contribu- 
tions to his department whom the students wish to hear. None 
know this better than Princeton men who remember Professor 
Henry as the prince of teachers, and who at the same time know 
that he was the father of telegraphy, and that it is his genius 
that has enabled us to whisper round the world. 

Add now to the civilizing influence that comes throuofh the 
simple presence of a body of learned men in the different educa- 
tional centres or that is exerted by these men in published writings, 
the influence which they exert upon their pupils who take their 
teachings with them into the various callings of life and reproduce 
or modify them^ in the pulpit, on the platform, or through the 
press: remember that the thought of the world rules the world, 
and that the best thouorht ouQrht to rule it: remember too that true 
views of civilization, of the functions of eovernment, and the basis 
of law; true answers to the question, how to live and what to live 
for; high ideals of the fit, the becoming, the beautiful, and the 
good, are the pillars of national stability, — and we shall see the 
importance from a national point of view not only or even chiefly 
of having our universities well-equipped but of having them built 
upon the right foundations. To be identified with the life of one 
of these institutions and so to have a hand upon the lever that 
uplifts the world is a matter of great privilege. I say this not 
only with respect to professors but with respect to the founders and 



21 

benefactors of these institutions. And here by the way we are 
reminded of one of the most remarkable factors of the new-world 
civilization. The old-world universities are State institutions or 
they rest upon monastic foundations, or have grown up in obedi- 
ence to roval mandates. The o;-reat colleo^es of America are for 
the most part the fruit of private beneficence. I need not speak 
of those to whom Ave are indebted here. Their names are house- 
hold w^ords and we hold them in grrateful remembrance. It is in 
the princely munificence of these men and of men like them con- 
nected with other universities, that we see some of the highest 
achievements of American civilization. This is true even in those 
cases where we may question the wisdom that directs the benefac- 
tions. There are cases where that wisdom may be questioned. A 
man with a million is not likely to be casting about for an adviser — 
and yet his will may be misdirected. It has occurred to many 
that more eood would be done — leavino- out of si^ht of course 
the special claims of new regions of country — if men would give 
to institutions already established rather than create new ones. 
A million dollars would make a very meagre university, but half 
a million would double the efficiency of one already established. 
To be sure a man who builds his university from the foundation 
is free from some embarrassing questions; just as a man who has 
no relations is sure to have no poor relations. But it is a pity not 
to see that a great past is a priceless thing. Mr. White has 
recently sketched for us the outline of the next American Uni- 
versity. It may be that he is correct and that I am not a disin- 
terested judge, but it seems to me that the question now^ is not 
so much what the next university shall be as how the existing 
universities shall be streno-thened. And whether Mr. White be 
right or wrong in his conception of the ideal American University, 
we know that Princeton University must conform to the genius of 
her historv and crrow alongf the lines that have been determined 
by her past. Measured by the }'ears of our sister University of 
Bologna, that has just celebrated her Sooth anniversary, we are 
not old. We remember that Oxford and Cambrido^e date from 
the i2thcenturv, that St. Ancirews was founded in 141 1, that it 



22 



Is 300 years since Rollock presided over the University of Edin- 
burgh, and that it becomes us to take a modest place beside our fair 
American sister who celebrated her own 250th anniversary only 
eighteen months ago. But after all age is a relative thing. And 
when a national institution antedates the national life it has a 
fair claim to consideration on the ground of age. We have a 
royal charter: we had a colonial history: the sign-manual of 
Princeton's President is on America's Magna Charta: and a 
Princeton graduate helped to make America's Constitution. By 
burning word and battle-scar our college has won the right to be 
heard through all the years to come In all that affects the highest 
interests of Church and State. Independent of both, she has been 
true to both; and she will be false to her founders and deserve 
to be deserted by her friends whenever she parts with her patri- 
otism or her piety. I lay emphasis upon both: love of country 
and love of God, were prominent characteristics of the men who 
laid the foundations of this institution; and I feel to-day that in 
both regards the labors of men like Davles and Witherspoon have 
left a heritage of obligation to me as I take my place in this 
great succession. 

But as In my opinion true patriotism consists not so much 
in glorying In the victories over a misguided foe as In seeking to 
foster the virtues that underlie national stability, so I believe 
that true piety Is fostered not so much by a frequent repetition of 
religious formulas as by a robust avowal of our Christian faith 
and a manly vindication of It as a reasonable thing. We do not 
mean to extinguish the torch of science that we may sit in religious 
moonlight, and we do not Intend to send our religion up to the 
biological laboratory for examination and approval. We shall 
not be afraid to open our eyes In the presence of Nature, nor 
ashamed to close them in the presence of God. And here the 
truth of history requires me to say that it is only In a qualified 
sense that the Log College can be called the mother of Princeton 
University. The Log College, like the College of New Jersey, 
had Its origin In the noble desire of devout and God-fearing men 
to promote Christian education, and while it Is proper in view 



23 

of all the facts, as Dr. Alexander shows, to speak of the Log 
College as the germ of the College of New Jersey, it must also 
be remembered that the latter had an independent beginning, and 
that while the Log College was meant to meet the religious 
exigencies of the time by making a shorter road into the Christian 
ministry, the College of New Jersey was from the beginning in 
the intentions of its founders a seat of learninor. The conditions 
under which Princeton has grown to its present position must be 
' the law of its future development. Said President Green: *' It 
is hoped that the guardians of Nassau Hall will forever keep in 
mind, that the design of its foundation would be perverted if 
religion should ever be cultivated in it to the neglect of science; or 
science to the neglect of religion; if on the one hand it should be 
converted into a religious house like a monastery or Theological 
Seminary in which religious instruction should claim almost 
exclusively the attention of every pupil: or upon the other hand 
should become an establishment in which science should be taught 
how perfectly soever, without connecting with it and constantly 
endeavoring to inculcate the principles and practice of piety. 
Whatever other institutions may exist or arise in our country in 
which religion and science may be separated from each other by 
their instructors or governors, this institution without a gross 
perversion of its original design can never be one." These 
words I make my own to-day, and, so help me God, during the 
time of my administration, Princeton shall keep faith with the 
dead. 

If, then, we are seeking to comprehend our position among 
the higher institutions of learning in our land, we must keep our 
history in view. It is well known that, in the judgment of many, 
the time has come for Princeton College to assume the name and 
style of a University. The exigencies of the hour, therefore, 
require me to ask what a university is, and what kind of a univer- 
sity Princeton is to be? It is not as easy as some suppose to 
to distinguish the college from the university by sharp boundary 
lines. It will not do to say that college and university in America 
correspond to gymnasium and university in Germany, for the 



24 

German gymnasium is not exactly the same as the American 
college, and the German university Is only one of several forms 
of university organization. It would be easy to theorize with 
respect to what the American university ought to be; or If the 
American university were defined by State or Federal laws and 
were possessed of definitely recognized privileges and charter 
rights that distinguish It from a college, we might say what the 
American university actually is. When, however, In the absence 
of material for determining what the American university Is, we 
ask the more general question regarding the marks of a university, 
we must fall back upon the historical usage of the word as Illus- 
trated in the recoofnized universities of the world. That usao^e 
shows that some of the prevailing views upon this question are 
erroneous. It is said, for instance, that a university is an institu- 
tion consisting of the four Faculties — Arts, Law, Medicine and 
Theology, and I confess a certain regard for this traditional idea, 
though I see that there is no logic of exclusion that should limit 
the learned professions to three, or prevent us from giving 
university status to other callings. But I deny that It Is of the 
essence of a university to have four Faculties, or even a plurality 
of Faculties. There was a university at Salerno with only a 
Faculty of Medicine; Bologna was a university when it gave 
instruction only In Law; Paris had a university that consisted of a 
Faculty of Theology. If, then, a university may consist of one 
Faculty, and of that history leaves us no room to doubt, it may 
certainly consist of that Faculty which, according to Du Bols 
Reymond, Is the centre of the university system, and which more 
than any other is concerned with pure science and is least burdened 
with utilitarian conditions. If a Faculty of Medicine may be a 
university, a Faculty of Philosophy may surely be one. And what 
is a well equipped college like this but a Faculty of Philosophy? 
It Is thought by some, however, that It Is of the essence of a 
university that the Faculty of Arts should offer a wide range of 
studies and that the students should be free In selecting them. 
But inasmuch as no university professes to teach the oinne scibile, 
and as no one has said how closely an institution must approximate 



25 

that before arrog-ating to itself the name of a university, it may 
be fairly said that an institution with say forty professors in the 
Faculty of Arts, has some claim to the title. The freedom of the 
students, however, is only a relative freedom after all, for since 
no institution has yet o-one so far as to eive its decree to students 
w^ithout imposing some conditions, either of residence or exami- 
nation, and as to the latter of the kind and number of subjects 
professed, it cannot be said that the freedom of the student is an 
article of the standing or falling university. It is further said 
that the university is to be regarded merely as an examining and 
degree-granting body, in some cases having one or more colleges 
affiliated with it. This is the prevailing view in England, the idea 
growing perhaps out of the relation of the University of Oxford to 
its colleges, though as a matter of fact the University antedated 
the colleges. The new Victoria University, w^th its affiliated 
colleges of Manchester and Liverpool, is based upon this idea, 
and so is that of London. This scheme accomplishes several 
good purposes. It limits the number of degree-granting bodies, — 
a very good thing to do — secures a high type of impartial exam- 
iners, and makes it possible to give the same university rank to 
several contiguous institutions without in any way interfering with 
their separate autonomies. But as Mr. Lyte says in his History 
of Oxford University, speaking of this and a previously given 
definition, "Neither will stand the test of history, for there have 
been great and learned universities neither professing to impart 
universal knowledofe nor boastine a single affiliated colleo-e." 
Omit the scheme of affiliated colleo-es from the last named con- 
ception of the university and we have an approximation to the 
University of France, which was, perhaps, in the mind of Mr. 
White when he pictured for the readers of The FortLvi the next 
University of America. Once more it is thought that the function 
of the university is to promote original research and be the resort 
of specialists. This is the basis of the German University, and 
the nearest approach to it in this country is the Johns Hopkins. 
This idea was apparently in the mind of Bacon, as Professor 
Laurie reminds us, and the realization of it is, in the judgment of 



26 

Professor Ladd, to constitute the American University of the 
future. There is place, of course, for such a university, but unless 
we are ready to follow Mr. Arnold and call Oxford a high school, 
or Mr. Ladd in disparaging the Scotch Universities, as I do not 
feel disposed to do, we must conclude that the genus University 
exists under several species. There are no principles of induction 
known to me that will justify us in taking any one of these as the 
type of the real university. History seems to teach us that we 
may use this word with a great deal of liberty, and until legislation 
has defined its use and limited its application, we may expect to 
hear of institutions that use this trade-mark without rising to our 
standard of what a university ought to be. Professor Laurie 
gives us three ''notes" of a university, and I am willing to take 
them on his authority, partly because theygive me the opportunity 
to say that however the question regarding a change of title may 
be settled — and on that subject I have no opinion to express- — 
Princeton is already a university, if there ever was a university 
in the world; and partly also because these three notes of a uni- 
versity will furnish the basis for a word or two regarding the 
management of Princeton College that may not be out of place 
on this occasion. The three notes of a university referred to 
are studiuin generale, Freedom and Autonomy. The studiMm 
generate has a double reference, being intended to mean both a 
place of general resort for students, and a place where liberal 
studies are pursued. The studiu7n generate was not a monks' 
school designed to fit men for the priesthood, but a school 
intended for all who choose to frequent it. Realize the non- 
ecclesiastical character of the university, and its other attributes 
follow by logical consequence. 

The founders of the College of New Jersey organized it 
upon this university basis. They were religious men; they were 
Presbyterians; but with a breadth of view not surprising when 
we remember who they were, they planted the institution on a 
broad basis of a studium generate. Says the late President Mac- 
lean: ''Either the superior judgment of those concerned in the 
foundation of our college or their great liberality of sentiment, 



27 

or else the circumstances of their position, perhaps all combined, 
led them to adopt the very best plan possible for the right found- 
ing and right ordering of such an institution. They made it 
neither a State college nor a Church college, but committed it 
to the oversight and care of a select number of the very best 
men interested in their enterprise and who had the confidence 
and respect of the whole community, being leading men in both 
Church and State." They planned their college for liberal cul- 
ture. Their charter imposes no religious tests upon professors, 
and it expressly provides that none shall be imposed upon the 
students. The founders of the college planned, therefore, for 
academic freedom, which is also a note of the university. Organ- 
ize an institution, not as a propaganda, but as a seat of learning; 
make your professors servants of Truth and your students seekers 
of it, and freedom is the necessary result. The scientific man will 
ask, what say the facts, not what says the creed. The student 
of politics will ask, what is best, not what the platform is. He 
may not vote with Gladstone or Salisbury. He may be neither a 
Democrat nor a Republican. He may glory in his independence 
and be reactionary or revolutionary, or he may represent the 
resolution of forces in the compromising diagonal, bear the oppro- 
brium of an ill-sounding designation, but feel sure, nevertheless, 
that the "Mugwump" has his reward: he is free. He may abuse 
his freedom, and glory rather in his emancipation than in the 
advantage that emancipation brings him, and stand opposed to 
the old order of thino-s for the sake of showino^ that he is free. 

o <_> 

This is freedom with some of freedom's excesses. We hear much 
just now of university freedom. Kant advocated it a hundred 
years ago, and Helmholtz sounded its praises in 1877. I believe 
in freedom, but in concrete experience we must take note of the 
qualifications of freedom. The genius of the university Is free- 
dom, but the genius of such a university as this is a qualified 
freedom. The trustees have responsibilities; so have the pro- 
fessors. These limit freedom. We have no scientific confession 
of faith, but we would not let a Communist teach political econ- 
omy, nor Mr. Jasper astronomy; we would not give academic 



28 

standing to the ''Substantial Philosophy" of Mr. Wilford Hall, 
nor permit one of the Flat-Land people to instruct in physical 
geography; we would not allow Mr. Sinnett to teach Esoteric 
Buddhism, or entertain a class with Madam Blavatsky's vagaries, 
because we believe in the freedom of philosophizing. We should 
also close our doors to the crude idealism professed by the so- 
called Christian scientists and the metaphysical healers. It is no 
part of university freedom to shelter nonsense or give learned 
leisure to the charlatan. Nor is it part of university freedom 
to open the halls of science and philosophy to men who teach 
atheism or belittle the Christian faith. I am not sure that I 
should commit myself to all the propositions in Virchow's famous 
'' Ignorabimus" speech, though I am in sympathy with its main 
ideas; and I have no difficulty in saying that on the general 
question under discussion I stand with him rather than Haeckel, 
his great antagonist. Limitations may be similarly shown to 
exist with regard to the students' freedom. A wise man recog- 
nizes the difference between adolescence and infancy. A wise 
man knows better than to treat a grown man like a child. What 
laws we need in college will depend on circumstances. Put your 
university in a city having no students in residence and the 
municipal authorities will take care of the discipline. Put five 
hundred men in residence and regulations become necessary. 
What regulations are necessary is a matter of time, place and 
circumstances. Self-government is ideal government. Spontan- 
eous obedience to a self-imposed law that supersedes law imposed 
by another is ideal life. I fear it will take at least another 
administration to bring the Princeton undergraduate up to that 
standard. 

Autonomy, not of the individual, however, but of the institu- 
tion, is the third note of a university. The mediaeval University 
was a guild of learning. Its autonomy and its privileges went 
together. It could hold property, manage its own affairs, and 
punish its members. It possessed valuable franchises. It was 
supreme in its region. They were protectionists in those mediaeval 
days; but they were also fair. They would not have thought it 



29 

right to give letters patent to the inventor of a lamp-chimney 
and let the poor scholar burn his midnight oil for the sole l^ene- 
fit of thankless and unremunerating publishers. No university 
could sell learning without a charter. And when we add the 
social consideration that the University had, and the political 
power that it afterwards came to have, we can see that it was a 
great matter for it to have its privileges and its autonomy to- 
gether. We have autonomy without the privileges. There is 
little in common between our autonomy and that of the mediaeval 
University, except the independence of Church and State. A 
university ought not to be bound by party politics or sectarian 
Theology. A Theological Seminary, however, though its Pro- 
fessors are engaged in the highest kind of university work, as in 
the case of our OAvn Seminary here that has done so much for 
Princeton's world-wide fame, ought to be under the supervision 
of the church whose theology it represents. The entire distinct- 
ness as to end and organization of the two great institutions that 
live side by side in this place and in such close relations is mani- 
fest at once. And now the question arises whether the autonomy 
of the Colleofe mieht not be modified to advantage. Should we 
not seek to realize a literary republic? Should. we not seek to give 
form to the solidarity of university life ? Some think that there 
is too great a barrier between Professors and Trustees; others 
that the graduates ought to have their interests stimulated through 
more tangible ideas than filial piety and a love for Alma Mater. 
It is felt by some that college administration is a business in 
which Trustees are the partners, Professors the salesmen, and 
Students the customers; and it is said that university life would 
take a great step forward if without interference with existing 
relations, many of which cannot be changed, there might never- 
theless be a common ground on which the representatives of the 
different interests could meet for consultation and action. 

These are questions that are likely to be presented to the 
consideration of universities in this and other lands. They are 
questions respecting which I should be slow to speak and where 
I shall more willingly follow than attempt to lead. And yet with- 



30 

out offense I trust I may venture to exercise the academic imagin- 
ation, and picture to myself the state of things that may perhaps 
exist in Princeton — say a hundred years to come — when on some 
ceremonial occasion like the present a University Convocation 
shall assemble. The University Senate is in session, let me first 
suppose. The Trustees of Princeton College are there, and repre- 
sentatives of the College Faculty are members of it; distinguished 
men from the Faculty of Theology add the weight of their wise 
opinion; the Faculty of Law has a representative; and represent- 
atives of the Alumni speak for their brother graduates all around 
the world. It is an august body composed of men who represent 
high character, practical sagacity, great and varied learning, 
profound thought, high position and refined culture. They sit 
in consultation on purely academic questions — the granting of 
degrees, the enlargement of the curriculum, or the importance of 
establishing a University Professorship in Comparative Religion, 
or Christian Archaeology, or the Institutes of Public Law. And 
now as in imagination I see the robed procession of Senate, 
Faculties, Fellows, Graduates and Undergraduates enter the 
Commencement Hall, I cannot resist the feeling that we have 
made a great advance in our academic life; that we have put 
into incarnate form, ideas that even now float vaguely in the 
minds of some; and that impressions have taken organic shape 
that are already prevalent across the sea, regarding Princeton 
University. 

It is however a more practical question which concerns us 
now: and having vindicated our title to university rank, I trust 
you will bear with me if I go on to say what kind of University 
Princeton ought to be. I believe that the learning acquired at 
a university should be regarded as valuable for its own sake 
rather than for the sake of the use that -is to be made of it. 
That being the case while we would not preclude professional 
training it will naturally take a subordinate place in our plans, 
and our idea regarding the aim of a university will be a restraining 
influence in relation to the development of schools that teach 
men the material arts. Much, too, that often passes for academic 



31 

instruction may be ruled out as having no disciplinary value. 
Mere information, mere lists of names and knowledge of inter- 
esting facts is not education. "Stuffing birds," as Newman says, 
''and playing on stringed instruments is an elegant pastime and 
a resource 'to the idle, but it is not education; it does not form 
or cultivate the intellect." When therefore a new department is 
proposed, you may expect me to require its advocates to show 
cause why it should not be excluded on the o^round that it has no 
disciplinary value. Moreover the general training of men for 
their career in life must be our first consideration. Original 
research is a luxury for the few. The many feel about it as 
Locke did about poetry, '' 'Tis a pleasant land but a barren soil." 
Guided then by the principle just stated we may study the prob- 
lem of Princeton's curriculum. Wg have two departments, the 
academic and the scientific. In the latter the tendency to provide 
professional education has found expression in the course in civil 
engineering, and I should favor a further development of the 
professional side of the School of Science, provided always it be 
kept in mind that pure science with a practical outlook, rather 
than practical business on a scientific basis is our plan of education. 
It is, however, on the academic side of the ColleQ^e that the main 
discussions regarding the curriculum are going on both here and 
elsewhere. We have in the first place the old fashioned college 
curriculum of four years, prescribed throughout. There can be 
no question of the high quality of the work that has been done 
in the past and that many colleges are still doing on this basis. 
It gives a good preparation for professional and specialized study. 
But it does not do justice to the special aptitudes of students and 
it necessarily excludes some very important branches of study. 
Next to this is the plan that allows the student to choose for 
himself out of a very extended curriculum what studies he will 
pursue. With the best students this may possibly produce the 
best results, though even regarding them we may well ask with 
Mr. Lowell whether it is, ''indeed, so self-evident a proposition 
as it seems to many that 'you may' is as wholesome a lesson as 
'you must.'" Once more it is said that the College course 



32 

should be regarded as equivalent to the Instruction given in the 
German Gymnasium and that it should be followed by three or 
four years in the University. This would practically result in 
a blotting out of. the Philosophical Faculty in the University, or 
rather there would be room for only one or two Faculties of this 
sort — that of Johns Hopkins, for example. The same effect 
would follow if the standard of admission to college were raised 
so that men should matriculate only when they had covered the 
studies included in the Freshman and Sophomore years. They 
would go as many are now going from the higher academies 
directly into the professional schools. This by the way is some- 
thing that should be considered by those who are advocating a 
higher standard of matriculation. A fourth plan consists in keep- 
ing the college course substantially as it is, modified perhaps by 
electives in the Junior and Senior years, and distinguishing by 
the name of University work the studies that are pushed forward 
into graduate courses. This looks to me too much like building 
the academic structure with four stories and an attic, and putting 
the University in the attic. It accommodates, to be sure, the 
number who desire to pursue the higher studies, but the name 
is too big for the slight use that it serves. There remains then 
what Is substantially our own method which. It seems to me, is 
admirably suited to the particular work that we are called upon 
to do. According to this scheme, two years are devoted to a 
prescribed course of disciplinary study. The two remaining 
years are devoted to studies partly obligatory and partly optional. 
There will be a tendency undoubtedly to widen the area of elec- 
tives in the Junior and Senior years, which however restrained 
v/ill nevertheless in all probability make necessary some change 
In the curriculum. It Is doubtful whether the scientific professors 
can do their best work with those who wish to prosecute scientific 
study unless some of the elements of science are taught in the 
Freshman and Sophomore years. There is no reason why Logic, 
being a purely formal science, should not, at least so far as the 
old Aristotelian logic of deduction Is concerned, be taught earlier 
In the course leaving the higher branches of the study involving 



33 

metaphysical Inquiries until a later stage. I doubt whether we can 
do what we ought to do In Latin and Greek until we distinguish 
in the first years of study between pass and honor work, and 
allow those whose aptitudes are for the humanities opportunity 
for a more exclusive devotion to them when approaching the close 
of the college curriculum. For I believe with Mr. Lowell that 
" Language should be a ladder to literature, and not literature a 
ladder to language." I would not have less philology, but more 
light and sweetness In the study of the classics. Some of us love 
our Milton though we do not read him In the way that Ruskin 
says we should, and cultivated men value their Latin or Greek 
as the basis of their literary culture who have no desire to be 
philological specialists. Hence though Ritschl and Mommsen, 
as Mr. Roby says, "know more of the Duellian inscription than 
Quintilian," It is Quintlllan and not Ritschl that they will prefer 
to read. I hope that we shall not forget to read the classics, 
whether Latin, Greek or English, in our eagerness to read what 
critics say about them. I hope that the scientific study of liter- 
ature will not destroy our love of literature, or lead us to forget 
that its function Is to please. I hope that In these days of 
original research, and when a man must do homage to King 
Arithmos If he would be great In science, or unearth a new fact 
by diving into some forgotten closet, If he would stand among 
the Immortals who have done what they call original work, we 
shall not forget that there Is still a place for literary art, that 
form and grace, that wealth of allusion and easy intellectual pose 
still count for something In education. Hence I hope that we 
shall increase our facilities for knowing the resources of our own 
language, and that the literatures of Italy and Spain will be open 
to those who wish to read them. 

Far be It from me, however, to have literature cultivated at 
the expense of science. Philosophy and science are to give us 
the poetry of the future. What is '' In Memoriam" but crystal- 
ized philosophy ? But for Tennyson's knowledge of the forms 
and processes of modern thought, we should never have had 
those ''jewels five-words long that on the outstretched finger of 



34 

time sparkle forever." What to the common mind is the dull 
carbon of dry metaphysics, in the hands of this great lapidary is 
cut into the gleaming facets of the diamond. Philosophy sits 
as queen among the sciences and we see her dressed in her 
robes of state when we turn to the pages of Tennyson and 
Browning. 

I am speaking therefore in the interest of literature when I 
commend the study of science and philosophy. And as I am 
speaking of literature let me speak on a subject that lies on the 
border-land of literature. I shall be sorry for Literature when 
History accepts a Fellowship in the Royal Society, and I shall be 
sorry for History when she is deserted by literary artists, and 
when we who do but read her annals must encounter the dust of 
the state-paper office. Nevertheless it is as science or rather as 
philosophy that History should be taught. I have no desire to 
see numerous courses of lectures on History form part of our 
curriculum and allowed to count as elective studies. For if this 
method be adopted there would be no reason why such courses 
should not be multiplied indefinitely. History can be made an 
easy study and as it becomes easy it ceases to be discipline, and 
therefore ceases to perform its proper function in University 
training. But history studied as Freeman would have it studied 
is not easy. I believe that Seeley Is right In saying that history 
is to be treated philosophically. The march of events must be 
rubrlclsed under some conception: shall It be Comte's or Hegel's; 
Buckle's or Schelllng's; or shall we stand with Augustine and 
Bunsen, with KIngsley and Lilly, and see In the logic of events 
the thought of God? It Is from the experience of the past that 
we are to gather the canons of to-day. History In this way takes 
its place in a group of studies which — using the words in its large 
Aristotelian sense — we may call the Science of Politics. As In 
Ethics we deal with human conduct with reference to the in- 
dividual, so in Politics we consider It with reference to society. 
I think that the first thing to be done In the development of 
Princeton College is the full equipment of this department of 
politics. There is room for the specialist in Political Economy, 



35 

and I could hope that some day we may have a chair exclusively 
devoted to it; unless Political Economy should be absorbed in 
the larger department of Social Science as some of the Physical 
Sciences are absorbed in Biology. It is manifest that as our life 
grows more complex, new questions will arise; and new problems 
requiring profound investigation and needing better treatment 
than they get at the hands of uneducated men with good motives, 
or educated men with false premises will demand attention. In 
the interests of national integrity it is important that they shall 
be dealt with in our colleges; and that our graduates who what- 
ever their calling may be will have the influence as citizens that 
is accorded to learning, should have a training that will enable 
them to deal with these problems by taking hold of the philo- 
sophical principles that underlie them. I hope that Social Science 
at no distant day w^ill have an able representative'in our Faculty. 
I should like also to see some provision made for instruction 
in the History and Philosophy of Jurisprudence. I am not think- 
ing of a professional law school, though even that may come 
later. It will be said, perhaps, that the study of Roman law will 
not help a man to try cases. I have no right to an opinion on 
that question. But I know that the man who understands the 
history of jurisprudence, who knows something about the Pan- 
dects, or has looked into Gaius and Ulpian, the man who has 
read Austin and Amos and Holland and Maine and Pollock and 
Lorimer, to say nothing of Savigny and Stahl, will go to the 
study of Coke and Blackstone, Story and Greenleaf, Washburn 
and Parsons a broader man, and that he will be a better jurist if 
not a better advocate. I believe, too, that in this field of philo- 
sophical jurisprudence there is a comparatively unoccupied field, 
so far as American colleges are concerned, and both for the 
additions that may be made to Princeton's fame, as well as for 
the contribution to general culture that would result from the 
establishment of such a chair, I hope for its foundation. It has 
been my habit year by year to recommend the students of the- 
ology to take advantage of their opportunities to study juris- 
prudence, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that some of 



36 

them have profited by my advice. It does a man no harm to be 
trained in the logic of law; and it is of no little advantage to the 
clergyman to read the jural language of St. Paul in the light of 
Roman law, to learn that the testamentary idea originated in the 
Roman mind, to see what the jus civile has done for Christianity, 
to learn how law in great measure gave form to theological liter- 
ature, and how in the mellow light of cathedral windows the 
marriage of jurisprudence and theology was effected. Law is 
science, Mr. Langdell says, and he teaches it in Harvard by re- 
quiring his students to ascertain its rules by induction from lead- 
ing cases. Law is also philosophy, and its rules rest on principles 
which it is the task of the philosophical historian to investigate. 
I hope that Princeton will do justice to her position in philosophy 
by dealing with this great department of life under philosophical 
rubrics. ^ 

I shall hope also that Philosophy, strictly so-called, will con- 
tinue to occupy the place in this institution which it has always 
had, and which has especially been given to it during the adminis- 
tration of Dr. McCosh. I say this not simply because I think it 
would be a pity for Princeton to lose any of her philosophical 
prestige, but also because I believe that all interests centre in 
Philosophy. Everything that we hold dear in faith is involved 
in the maintenance of the a priori e\em.ex\\,'s> of knowledge. All 
departments of inquiry are interested in a right theory of knowl- 
edge. We are neither Hegelians nor Comtists. We believe in 
experience, but we believe in the categories that condition the pos- 
sibility of experience. Our intuitionalism unifies all our studies, 
whether they be in the region of science or literature, of history 
or politics, of jurisprudence or art. It is but natural that I should 
hope for a reinforcement as soon as practicable of the department 
of philosophy. And as I shall be more closely related to the 
philosophical department than any other, I may be pardoned if 
I say a word regarding it. No department of College instruc- 
tion should be handled with greater care than this: there is none 
where it is possible to do greater mischief. If a man goes wrong 
here he goes wrong everywhere. I shall feel bound to watch 



37 

jealously the instruction in this department. And yet I shall 
advocate — in the Interests of truth and sound learnino^ — the ex- 
pansion of this department. The hope of sound philosophy Is 
in seeing to it that sound philosophers are not behind the times. 
The peril of having eyes Is that they may lead us astray; but we 
cannot afford to put them out. If we are to study philosophy 
we must use and scrutinize philosophical systems. The books 
in our Library are meant to be read. We do not keep a philo- 
sophical museum where visitors are kindly requested not to handle 
the specimens. I think that we should prosecute the study of 
what is erroneously called the new psychology. I have less In- 
terest than some in laboratory work in the study of the mind, 
and I do not grow enthusiastic over diagrams that represent the 
daily fluctuations of ''the normal knee-jerk;" but I believe that 
we should take advantage of all the light that physiology throws 
upon the problems of the mind. I do not think that Hegel has 
said the last word in philosophy; but I do not believe that we 
should Ignore his influence, which, though it be an evil, is yet not 
an unmitigated evil. Dr. McCosh has been too independent 
himself to expect or even to desire his successors in the chair of 
psychology to accept every statement he has made. Yet I believe 
that in regard to the main points of his contention his position is 
not only true but vitally related to all truth. And I furthermore 
believe that nothing will more readily lead to an acknowledgment 
. of this than a discriminating study of the history of philosophy. 
I should give a very high place to this study in our curriculum. 
Nothing tends to quicken a man's power of thought more than 
the critical study of the history of philosophical opinion, and it 
is more important after all to think than to know ''the time it 
takes to think." 

It Is to be hoped that the Art Building will commend itself 
to friends who will secure its speedy completion, and that all 
requisite Instructors in that department will be provided. We 
do not mean to establish a Conservatory of Music or a School of 
Painting. Our purpose is to promote aesthetic philosophy by 
lectures on the History of Art and Archaeology, and for such 



38 

lectures there is an important place in a college curriculum, that 
aims to be comprehensive. 

With these additions to our curriculum, it would be neces- 
sary to make some new adjustments, at least in the Senior year, 
regarding- the choice of electives. As far as my present light 
goes I see no better way than that of allowing a man at the close 
or toward the middle of his Junior year to proceed to his degree 
along any of several roads; these roads being indicated roughly 
by Literature, Science and Philosophy, each being again divided 
into parallel paths — as that of philosophy might be into pure 
philosophy, political science, and jurisprudence. There would 
be difficulties of a practical kind about the group-system and some 
concessions should be made to those who raise them, but such a 
system would accomplish several results. It would secure 
thorough acquaintance with a related group of studies. It would 
be a protection against the evil effects of scattering the energies 
over too many fields. It would, therefore, make the Bachelor's 
degree significant of real education. 

Such a system would naturally be arranged according to the 
analogy of the course of graduate studies that now lead to the 
degree of Doctor of Science and Doctor of Philosophy, and 
would be the best preparation for them. To the degree of B.D. 
and Ph.D., which we now give, we might add, as soon as ade- 
quate provision is made for courses in jurisprudence, the degree 
of LL. B., the doctorate in both Divinity and Law remaining 
an honorary degree as at present. I trust that these graduate 
courses will be developed from year to year and that an increas- 
ing number of graduates will avail themselves of them. To this 
end it is greatly to be desired that the University Fellowships, 
the object of which is to encourage specialized study on the part 
of graduates, should be added to as rapidly as possible. We 
have now the names of ten Fellows on our catalogue. It would 
add incalculably to the efficiency of the college, were it in nothing 
but the stimulus it would give to undergraduate study, if we had 
fifty Fellows in attendance every year engaged in advanced work 
in the several departments of inquiry. And lest some shall sup- 



39 

pose that a fellowship Is a premium put upon learned leisure, let 
me say that the men who are likely to apply for fellowships are 
men who, for the most part, will make teaching their profession. 
There is a o-rowino- demand for trainine teachers. I think it will 
be a oTQod thino- for the his/her education in this country when it 
bec^omes fully understood that a professor can secure full equip- 
ment for his work in the larger colles^es of our own land. 

On the grounds already given I have taken it for granted 
that Princeton is a University. Into the question regarding a 
change of name I do not propose to enter. It is a matter that 
when the time comes will be wisely dealt with, and I doubt not 
that some who hear me to-day will feel that without challenging 
my position it would be unwise to make any change in our cor- 
porate title before some further advance has been made in the 
development of the institution, and doubtless there is great force 
in this view. I have indicated in a general way the line of pro- 
o-ress which seems to be before the Colleo^e, and in makino- the 
suggestions that I do I am but acting in the spirit as I suppose 
of Dr. McCosh's administration. I have Indicated some of the 
educational advantages that students enjoy and ought to enjoy 
in Princeton. I may, therefore, very properly in my closing 
words speak with more special reference to the students them- 
selves. We shall never let a student leave Princeton, if we can 
help it, for lack of accommodation, so long as there is a room to be 
rented in the town; the students however would prefer to live in a 
College Hall, and we should prefer to have all of them do so; but 
until we can get a new dormitory that is out of the question. 
We shall never let a worthy student go away from Princeton 
through lack of ability to pay his tuition fees; and it not uncom- 
monl)^ happens that the brightest and best men, the men who 
give greatest promise of usefulness and stand at the head of their 
classes, find it hard to meet the necessary expenses even when 
tuition Is remitted, and tuition is remitted every year to the 
amount of about $15,000. This is offset by the income of $5,000 
from scholarships, and the College is thus giving away every year 
about $10,000 In free tuition. We have seventy-two scholarships 



40 

of $i,ooo each. We need one hundred more. We do not teach 
our students to spend £i,ooo a year, as Sir Lyon Playfair says 
the English universities do, and I fear that we cannot always teach 
them to make £ i ,000 a year as the same gentleman says the Scotch 
universities do. We may find it difficult sometimes to cultivate 
literature on a little oatmeal; but I am able to say, after careful 
inquiry, that a man of moderate means need not hesitate to send 
his sons to Princeton. We have no wish to make a Princeton 
degree a rich man's luxury. Our students come mainly from the 
Middle States. Some come from the West, and some will, con- 
tinue to come I hope, notwithstanding the growth of the colleges 
that are doing such admirable work in that region. With the 
establishment of State universities in the South we may expect 
that Southern students for the most part will seek their educa- 
tion nearer home: but there are many living under those south- 
ern skies who remember "Old Princeton" as their Alma Mater; 
and I would like to say to them to-day, since '' the war drums 
beat no longer and the battle flags are furled," that it is the same 
old Princeton that now invites them with their sons to revisit the 
academic homestead. 

Sir Alexander Grant reminds us that when we use the word 
''college" as distinct from the word ''university," the idea of a family, 
a home, attaches especially to the former word. In this sense we 
do not wish to outgrow the term. A man misses much of college 
education who lives in the city and rides to lectures on the street 
car. Men thrown together in residence educate one another, as 
Newman says. An education thus obtained is quite as valuable 
in its way as that derived from the text-book or the lecture. The 
English universities make gentlemen, Huber says: I would have 
a university do more than that, but that is not a little thing to do. 
I hope that besides doing this, the effect of under-graduate 
life in Princeton is to cultivate the character and foster a manly 
spirit. I think we give a mental training here that will fit men 
to do their work in life with credit and success. Those who love 
study have ample opportunities to gratify their desires; and those 
who do not love it are under constraining influences. I do not 



41 

think that either the phrensy of amusements or the phrensy of 
examinations of which Mr. Freeman speaks, exists among us in a 
form sufficiently aggravated to distract the minds of serious men. 
We have idle men, to be sure, and if we could put implicit confi- 
dence in Mr. Mahaffy who when speaking of Des Cartes lets fall 
the statement that ''a great deal of idleness is indeed the condi- 
tion of the highest and the most lasting diligence," we might be 
looking by and by for some epoch-making books from men who 
as undergraduates cannot be said to be spoiling their future by 
premature and excessive mental application. There is however 
a great deal of hard and high-class work done by our undergradu- 
ates. It is a mistake to suppose that our students come only for 
athletics. This, by the way, is a subject of recognized difficulty 
in college management. The evils connected with athletics should 
be checked, but I should be sorry to lose the lessons of manliness 
that athletics teach. Let us remember what Helmholtz says: 
" The more young men are cut off from fresh air and from the 
opportunity of vigorous exercise, the more induced will they be 
to seek an apparent refreshment in the misuse of tobacco and 
intoxicating drinks." The gymnasium has my vote as an agent 
in moral reform. 

I ought to say moreover that there is a strong religious influ- 
ence exerted in Princeton College. The exercises in Murray Hall 
are a marked feature of Colleee life. It deserves to be said more- 
over that although the matter of giving Biblical instruction in 
Colleges is only now beginning to excite attention in some quarters, 
it has never been neglected here. I should be sorry if I could 
not hope that my influence upon the College might tend in some 
degree to strengthen Christian faith and foster Christian life. 

I am reminded, as I speak, of the manifold relations I sustain 
and of the various forms of obligation imposed upon me by the 
official connection that has been formed to-day between the college 
and myself. For I shall owe a duty not to students only, but to all 
the interests that are represented in the college. I desire my 
relations to the students to be fruitful of the best results, and, there- 
fore, I wish to know them individually and count them my personal 



42 

friends. I shall hope as year by year they go out to join their 
fellow-alumni, scattered over the world, to follow them as far as 
possible with a personal interest in their career, and as my pre- 
decessor has done with such conspicuous success, to keep the great 
body of the graduates interested in the progress of their Alma 
Mater by telling them of our affairs and how we do, when from 
time to time the pleasure is afforded me of sharing the hospitali- 
ties of their annual reunions. In taking up my work I know that 
I have much to learn re^ardine the institution of which I know 

o o 

so much already. I count it one of my special causes for gratifica- 
tion that I shall be able to fall back from time to time upon the 
wise counsel of the Dean of the College, who has rendered services 
of priceless value to this institution, and who I am sure will give 
me the advantage of his large experience in the way that an old 
friendship will suggest. I shall not cease to be a professor by 
becoming the President of the College: and I must be allowed to 
magnify my office and to have the same zeal for my department 
that my colleagues in the faculty have for their's. I owe it to my- 
self to see to it that my occupancy of this place does not operate 
to the disadvantage of those qualities which suggested my eleva- 
tion to it. I should soon demonstrate my unfitness for this 
position were I to lose my hold upon those departments of study 
to vv^hich I have heretofore eiven attention. I am encourao^ed in 
the feeling that a man may hold a book in one hand and the reins 
of government in the other when I remember that Dr. Wayland, 
Dr. Woolsey, Dr. Hopkins and Dr. McCosh, who certainly will 
always rank among the great College Presidents of America, found 
time amid the pressure of administrative duties to publish treatises 
and act as leaders of thought. I believe, however, that the 
Trustees do not think it necessary for me to promise them that I 
will not neglect my studies. They, perhaps, are waiting for some 
evidence that they have not seated a mere book-worm in the 
Presidential chair, and I beg to say that I will furnish that at my 
earliest convenience. 

True culture culminates in religion. True philosophy has 
God as its postulate; true science reaches God as its conclusion. 



The education therefore that is to prove a valuable element in 
civilization cannot afford to be indifferent to the claims of divine 
truth. The best Christians are the best citizens. Without faith 
in the next world we shall soon lose interest in this. It is not 
enough, therefore, that we seek to train men who are skilled in 
mathematics, and cultivated in the knowlege of the great litera- 
tures of the world. It is not enough that we be abreast of the 
times in regard to the ereat inductions of science or that our 
professors are well-read in the latest utterances of German philos- 
ophy. It is not enough that we maintain no hostile attitude to 
religion, and that we teach men to think on the great problems 
of the social economy without prejudice to their hereditary beliefs. 
It is not enough that we have Christian services on Sunday and 
that ample accommodations are furnished those w^ho by taste and 
training are disposed to engage in concerted effort to promote a 
wholesome religious sentiment in the College. There should be 
distinct, earnest, purposeful effort to show every man who enters 
our College Halls the grounds for entertaining those fundamental 
relio^ious beliefs that are the common heritao;e of the Christian 
world. The necessary effect of education is that of awakening 
the spirit of inquiry on all subjects. And we have no right to 
conduct a course of study the object of which is to tell a man to 
think, to induce a man to think, to train a man to think; and the 
effect of which is a tendency at least to bring the naive convictions 
of childhood before the bar of reason, that they may show cause 
why they should not be abandoned — without at the same time 
doing something to strengthen faith, and give it a reasoned 
position. I am happy to say that this matter has always been 
attended to here: and I can only add that if I can do any thing 
in the pulpit or the lecture-room, by spoken word or printed page, 
in the formality of professorial instruction or the informality of 
friendly talk, to strengthen the hands of my colleagues who are 
alreadv eneaeed in the work of religious instruction, I shall con- 
sider the opportunity of doing so one of the supreme privileges of 
my position. I believe in the education that fits men not only for 
life but for eternal life. And so believinor I commit mwself to 



44 

the guidance of God, and commend this College to his grace, en- 
treating that during the time that I shall serve it as in former 
years this seat of learning alike in the work that it may do for 
science and the witness that it may bear to revealed truth may 
promote the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to 
whom be glory ever-more. 



